Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 35

2/2/2016

Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East, Liberalism, Modernity and Political Discourse
By: Mohammed A. Bamyeh, Editor
Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East, Liberalism, Modernity and Political Discourse. London, New York, and
Melbourne: Tauris Academic Studies. 320pp. $99.00. ISBN:13: 978-1848856288.
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
April 2013
Review by
Samaneh Oladi Ghadikolaei, PhD
University of California
Santa Barbara
Mohammed A. Bamyeh’s Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East, Liberalism, Modernity and Political Discourse, centers on the subject
of the social role of intellectuals in the Middle East and the manner in which intellectuals influence public life. This book collects essays from a
wide range of perspectives on the issue of intellectuals and their role in civil society, including, historical, sociological, empirical and contemporary
treatments. It emerged out of a workshop entitled 'The Social Role of intellectuals in the Middle East', organized in 2008, at the European
University Institute in Florence, Italy. Contributors to this volume were asked to identify one intellectual or a group of intellectuals who have had a
role in social life.
In the introductory chapter, Mohammed A. Bamyeh, outlines four central questions that this volume attempts to address. The first question is how
does intellectual activity involve seeing society from a distance? The second question centers on whether alienation is only part of the experience of
the intellectual in society, the other part being the intellectual's 'organic' nature? The third question focuses on how is the duality of alienation and
organicism connected to the dialectics of innovation? And finally, from what locations do intellectuals come to exercise a considerable influence on
social life and civil society? Bamyeh suggests various modes of exploring these questions, which are addressed in subsequent chapters.
This book is organized into three segments. The first segment is titled “Intellectuals as Modern Vanguard.” The first article in this section is by
Elizabeth Williams. By examining the life of Nazik al-‘Abid, an intellectual and founder of the Nur al-Fayha society, Williams explains that
al-‘Abid urged women to mobilize in defense of the nation. Williams’ study reveals that the society’s ideas concerning modernity complemented
both the religious and social traditions of Syria; and that negotiating between the two when it comes to understanding women’s status in society was
what eventually led to the construction of the Syrian Arab national community. One can see parallels between the pragmatic approach the women
of the Nur al-Fayha’ employed during the 20th century, and the contemporary Muslim women preachers and leaders in Syria, such as Houda alHabash.
An article by Lital Levy on the edification between sect and nation, introduces Murad Farag as a paradigmatic example of the modern Arab
intellectual. Here, Farag appears as an organic intellectual at the peak of al-nahda, the modern Arab renaissance. This chapter revisits al-nahda
through the perspective of Farag, to determine what the case of a Karaite Jew might be able to reveal about the Arab intellectual as a social
reformer. A reading of Farag’s journal, al-Tahdhib, shows how he adapted al-nahda discourse to a Karaite context, while also illuminating the void
between those sublime al-nahda ideals and the social realities they inte